As imaging optical systems dedicated to digital input/output apparatuses such as digital still cameras, digital video cameras, and the like, compact and light-weight zoom lenses capable of focusing on an object within close-up photographing range have been desired, and moreover, also desired have been camera devices incorporating zoom lenses capable of high-speed focusing on an object within close-up photographing range.
For the recent years, camera devices, such as digital still cameras, employing solid state image sensors have become increasingly popular. Especially, exchangeable lens systems in single-lens reflex style have been popular so far, which exploit phase difference sensors and distance data output therefrom, for the focusing. For the more recent years, however, new generations of the exchangeable lens systems have rapidly come into wide use, which make image pick-up devices determine contrast of an image and thus obtain focusing data on the contrast of the image for optimizing the focusing.
In such imaging optical systems that conduct the focusing on the data of the contrast of the image detected by image pick-up devices incorporated in compact digital still cameras and new generations of the exchangeable lens systems, generally, the peak of the contrast of the image formed by the optics is determined while lens groups dedicated to the focusing are being displaced. To that end, the focusing lens groups have to once reach their respective positions to attain the highest or peak contrast and further pass over to detect those positions related to the peak contrast. Thus, the focusing lens groups need to respectively recede to the positions again for the peak contrast.
Such displacement of the focusing lens groups is sort of reciprocation along the optical axis, namely, oscillation in such directions. Thus, in order to attain high-speed auto-focusing, the focusing lens groups have to be displaced at high speed.
Meanwhile, when the displacement along the optical axis of the focusing lens groups causes a field angle to vary, and then an imaging magnification to vary, beams in the course of being focused creates a shaking picture, and such picture disturbance leads to deterioration of image quality and makes a photographer feel unpleasant.
In the prior art, a typical architecture of high variable power zoom lenses is that which has first and second lens groups in a series, namely, a positive power lens group disposed the closest to an object to photograph and a negative power lens group closer to the image plane. Any of this type of lens systems has its first lens group disposed the foremost and dimensioned the greatest in diameter, and by virtue of an ability of the first lens group to condense rays, the succeeding lens group closer to the image plane may be relatively small in diameter. Such lens system highly owes the variable power to the second lens group, and therefore, the second lens group has to have strengthened refractive power. For that purpose, correction of aberrations are controlled by so greater a number of lens pieces, which is prone to increase in the weight of the lens system as a whole.
To cope with this in the prior art, that is, to reduce the weight of the focusing lens groups as much as possible, optical systems employing the so-called inner focusing have been proposed, which avoid using the foremost large lens for the focusing and instead have the succeeding lens group(s) used to adjust a flux of the rays already condensed for creating a clear image.
Such inner focusing type optical systems include that which has its fourth lens group of negative refractive power dedicated to the focusing, which, specifically, is a zoom lens that comprises a first lens group of positive refractive power positioned the closest to one of the conjugate points from which the point of the minimally condensed light flux or the aperture stop is positioned more apart, a lens group of negative refractive power positioned the second closest, and one or more succeeding lens groups of positive refractive power, as a whole, positioned closer to the other conjugate point to which the point of the minimally condensed light flux or the aperture stop is closer where when the zoom lens has its focusing posture varied from the wide-angle end to the telephoto end to vary magnification, a distance between the first and second lens groups becomes greater while a distance between the second lens group and the one or more succeeding lens groups is smaller. The second lens group is comprised of a negative power subset 2a and another negative power subset 2b closer than the subset 2a to the other conjugate point closer to the aperture stop and dedicated to the focusing. The zoom lens meets the requirements defined in the formula as follows:0.3<|f2a|/(fw×ft)1/2<0.9where fw is a focal length of the zoom lens focusing wide-angle, ft is a focal length of the zoom lens focusing telephoto, and f2a is a focal length of the subset 2a. (See, for instance, Patent Document 1 listed below.)
Some other inner focusing type optical systems include a zoom lens system that comprises a first positive power lens group, a second negative power lens group, a third positive power lens group, a fourth negative power lens group, a fifth positive power lens group, and a sixth negative power lens group serially arranged in order on the closest to an object first basis where the zoom lens varies magnification by altering distances between adjacent pairs of its lens groups, meeting the requirements defined in the formulae as follows:DW(1−2)<DT(1−2)  (1)DW(2−3)<DT(2−3)  (2)DW(3−4)<DT(3−4)  (3)DW(4−5)<DT(4−5)  (4)DW(5−6)<DT(5−6)  (5)where DW(i−j) is a distance between the i-th and j-th lens groups of the zoom lens system focusing wide-angle in infinity focus, and DT(i−j) is a distance between the i-th and j-th lens groups of the zoom lens focusing telephoto in infinity focus. The fourth lens group is displaced along the optical axis for the focusing. (See, for instance, Patent Document 2 listed below.)